In modern industrial societies, large quantities of particulates require storage and/or transport from location to location. Thus, daily trainloads of coal are required to provide energy for many steam electric generating stations. In addition, large quantities of aggregates and by-products and/or waste materials require handling, storage and/or transport.
One major problem encountered in handling, conveying, storage and/or delivery of the foregoing materials is that of emptying them from the transporting vessel or storage receptacle. Thus, there is the problem of sticking due to hydrogen bonding to walls of the vessel, vehicle, container, or conveyor when water or other solutions are present. In addition, there is the problem of sticking arising when materials freeze.
Various proposals have been made to overcome or partly ameliorate the foregoing problems, for example, spraying loosening compounds into the interior of the vessel. Heating can, of course, be employed to ameliorate the adverse effects of freezing, and there have even been proposed giant car shakers that actually shake or vibrate rail cars that are being unloaded so as to shake loose the otherwise sticking materials. However, spraying has been found to be costly and only partly effective; heating requires equipment and the expenditure of time and energy; and vibrators and shakers are often expensive, bulky and can cause undesired damage.
In addition to the foregoing proposals, certain lining arrangements have been proposed, illustrative of which is that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,453,875 which was granted to Theodore C. Johnson, Sr. on Jun. 12, 1984. According to that proposal, a wheel-supported open top transporting vessel such as a railway car is provided with a liner arrangement comprising a plurality of belt members arranged between the end walls of the car with the sides of adjacent ones of the belts overlapped in the direction between the end walls and with each belt overlying the side walls and bottom wall of the car. One end of each belt member is attached to the upper end of the corresponding one of the side walls and by upward displacement of the other end, each belt is adapted to be displaced upwardly relative to the car. Material in the car is progressively unloaded laterally outwardly of the car by sequential displacement of the belts in accordance with the pattern of overlap.
While the Johnson proposals may be effective in providing controlled evacuation of the contents from a railroad car, they teach that the "Material in the car is progressively unloaded laterally outwardly of the car by sequential displacement of the belts in accordance with the pattern of overlap." Thus, it would appear necessary to provide some means for physically elevating the belts in accordance with a controlled sequence, thus requiring actively employed equipment to impart the required controlled sequential motion. This, of course, entails expense, maintenance of the motion-imparting equipment, and operation thereof by an operator.
Accordingly, there has continued to be a need for a way to provide facilitated transfer, and improved emptying and/or evacuation of contents from passageways, particulate vehicles, containers or other handlers.